Lyon Olympique Universitaire vs Cardiff Blues

Head to Head

This will be only the second fixture between Lyon and Cardiff following the fixture in October last year when the home team ran out 29-19 winners. At home, Lyon are a formidable outfit, having lost only twice at home this season, narrowly to La Rochelle and Toulouse. They sit mid-table in the Top14, having finished 10th last season following promotion from ProD2 where they spent a year during the 2015-16 season.

The Coaches

Pierre Mignoni played for seven clubs during a long career in French rugby, eventually ending his playing days with Toulon in 2011. He spent four years at the club post-retirement as a coach, before moving to Lyon in the summer of 2015. Since then, he’s brought stability to the club and amassed a very impressive 76% home win ratio. At Cardiff, Danny Wilson is coming to the end of his time with the club, and will want to improve on his overall 48% win rate. In a tight group, his team has only scored 9 tries (and only conceded 8). No other team in this season’s competition has scored fewer tries.

Set Piece

Lyon’s scrum is one of the more impressive in the Pro14 with a 92% success rate. However, in the Challenge Cup, they’ve been less successful, registering only 88%. Cardiff – meanwhile – have lost only one scrum on their put in so far in the competition. Lyon’s lineout success rate of 91% ranks above their visitors who have only managed an 85% in success rate in the competition. In the reverse fixture in Wales, Lyon returned a 100% success rate from 8 feeds to the scrum and the visitors inflicted Cardiff’s only loss against the head in this season’s competition.

Prediction

Last season, the visitors lost eleven games away from home – already this season, the figure stands at seven. However, in the Challenge Cup, Cardiff have won three out of their last five away games, with the failure to perform in Salford a real blight. When it comes to France, Cardiff have the best record of away wins amongst the professional clubs in Wales, but victories still remain a rarity. As with many French teams, they present a different proposition when playing at home. This game represents a dead rubber for both sides, but it will be Lyon’s desire to maintain their home record that will see them come away as victors in a closely fought game, 22-21.